Our schools must be a safe place to learn, but too often they are not.
In early September, two people, including an East High School student was shot near the school. Two weeks later, East High School had its first lockdown.
On Feb. 13, Luis Garcia, a 16-year-old East student, who excelled on the soccer field and classroom, was shot and fatally wounded near the school while sitting in his car.
A mere six weeks later, two school staff members, Jerald Mason and Eric Sinclair were shot and wounded after conducting a routine safety check on Austin Lyle, a 17-year-old student, while students were nearby attending an assembly. Lyle, who had been expelled from the Cherry Creek School District, was subject to a safety plan that required him to be searched.
Parents anxiously waiting to hug their children outside of schools is an all too familiar scene in America today. If I were one of those parents at East last week, I would be shopping for a new school.
No parent or child should have to endure this cycle of violence at or around their school.
Noticeably absent at East were trained school resource officers, who had monitored, built relationships with and protected students on Denver campuses for decades. These police officers worked to bridge relationships with students and their communities. They were missing because the DPS board, in its infinite wisdom, removed them from its hallways and canceled the contract with the Denver Police Department in the heat of the defund police movement following the murder of George Floyd.
Rather than carefully examine the DPS experience, the school board rushed to judgment. School board Director Auon’tai Anderson led the charge to remove them, arguing that “school resource officers are not needed to ensure the safety of all of our kids.” At one point he told a protest crowd that police are all “mother(obscenity)” and corrupt.
James Murdock, dean of students at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College was one of many that were strongly opposed saying that he never witnessed racism in their actions. Several principals and deans pleaded with the board to keep their programs or at least adopt a slower approach to phasing them out. News reports noted that most of the officers actually serving in Denver schools were Black or Hispanic and grew up in the communities they served.
And John Castillo, whose son Kendrick was killed in the STEM Highlands Ranch shooting, forewarned that this decision had dangerous implications.
He was right. If stupidity was a crime, that decision would have been a felony.
It’s not just East. DPS figures obtained by The Denver Post show 14 firearms have been confiscated in Denver schools this year. There have also been at least 30 cases of gun violence in and around DPS schools this academic year. Those numbers are likely higher, but we don’t know because DPS doesn’t simply release data to the public on lockdowns, weapons confiscated, or other material items that we have a right to know and should know in real time.
Would officers have made a difference? That’s impossible to know, but odds are they would have likely been in close proximity to Lyle and might have been involved in the pat down. Their presence at and around the school may have served as a deterrent to the other incidents as well.
It’s safe to say that they wouldn’t have made the situation worse.
Credit Superintendent Alex Marrero, who refused to stay silent and ordered the officers back in Denver schools noting he was willing to accept the consequences of his actions. The board in an emergency meeting finally agreed to follow his lead and work with Denver’s mayor to fund at least two armed police officers and two mental health workers, including therapists and psychologists, at all high schools for the remainder of the year.
Indeed, the District’s poor judgment doesn’t end there. More than 800 students who could be a danger to themselves or others have gone through threat assessments this school year alone.
9News reported this week that the principal of McAuliffe International School, Denver’s largest middle school, must also perform daily pat downs on a student charged with, among other things, attempted first-degree murder and illegal discharge of a firearm. Staff at the school is not trained on how to perform these safety checks. The District refused the principal’s request to have the student take online classes or be expelled.
In a twist of logic, Director Anderson told Kyle Clark in an interview this week that students shouldn’t be removed from the classroom even if the student has been charged with shooting someone so long as the shooting wasn’t on school grounds. Seriously? During the pandemic, schools became adept at teaching students through online classes.
Denver parents are so enraged that some have started a petition that calls for removal of the DPS board members.
DPS must create a safe and supportive learning environment for its students. Until they can deliver, Denver voters would be wise to take a hard look at the Denver school board candidates on the ballot this fall.
Doug Friednash grew up in Denver and is a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck. He is the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.
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